Photo by Erica Meline
Comedy is the perfect relief from the stress of finals, so the College Programming Board’s Tuesday Night Live Comedy Show was highly appropriate. The show’s main act, Jeff Scheen, was opened by comedian Irene Morales.
Morales’s self-deprecating and dry sense of humor was received well among the audience, sparking laughter with many of her relatable jokes.
“I'm on a diet because I'm a woman in America,” Morales opened, continuing to talk about her personal experience on Weight Watchers as a child. Morales kept this mood throughout her performance, drawing most of her jokes from her own personal experience. She particularly looked to her Cuban nationality for jokes throughout the show.
“I was raised Cuban Catholic which is just like Irish Catholic with subtitles,” Morales joked, drawing a great deal of laughter throughout the audience. Her cynical style was greatly appreciated by the audience, and she was able to find humor in seemingly bleak situations, such as her brother having autism.
“The nice thing about having an autistic brother is that you can just let your freak flag fly,” Morales noted at one point.
Once Morales wrapped up, Scheen took the stage. Scheen continued Irene’s trend of getting material from making fun of himself. Scheen’s style, however, was nerdier.
“I lived in the woods,” Scheen explained, continuing, “you’re not going to get a quarterback out of that. You’re going to get a weird lizard kid.”
Scheen’s routine contained mostly strange personal anecdotes, like how his mother’s water broke on top of him and how he slept with his parents until the age of 12, “like some twisted little Berenstain Bear family.”
Scheen’s humor was also very dark, which he attributed to himself having a couple near death experiences, such as being hit by a car on his way to getting on a bus.
“I thought ‘oh no, an ambulance, that's gonna cost so much more than this bus,’” Scheen joked.
The audience thoroughly enjoyed Scheen’s performance. His ability to find humor in dark situations was both clever and entertaining. Scheen made fun of his own family life, especially in regards to his father.
“Do you ever want to clone yourself and raise yourself to see how bad your dad messed up?” Scheen asked at one point, taking the entire audience by surprise and causing the room to fill with laughter. Scheen’s ability to shock the audience continued throughout his performance. At another point, Scheen stated, “I grew up wrestling my mom. I would have wrestled my dad but he was busy wrestling alcoholism.”
The audience was incredibly pleased with the way Scheen was unpredictable and strange, laughing throughout the duration of his performance.
All the students that went seemed to enjoy the show. One student in particular, sophomore Hannah McCoy, really appreciated the event, laughing so much both comedians expressed their love for her as an audience member.
“My cheeks hurt so much,” stated McCoy after the show. “I couldn’t stop laughing.”
“It was a fun show,” agreed McCoy’s friend, sophomore DeAndria Barksdale.
Freshman Claudia Wetzel stated, "I wasn't planning on coming, but I found my way here and I'm so glad I came. It was a great event."
emeline@ramapo.edu
